Jan. 3, 2010
Box Score
San Diego, Calif.- Seniors Brandon Johnson, Chris Lewis, and Roberto Mafra, with their combined 57 points, paced the University of San Diego men's basketball team to a 74-64 victory over Florida A&M on Sunday evening at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Johnson, coming off a 31-point effort this past Thursday against Mississippi State, had a game-high 23 points against the Rattlers (2-11), fifteen of which came in the second-half. The 6-0 guard also dished out seven assists, increasing his career total to 468 and passing David Fizdale to place himself at the top of the career assists list in school history.
Mafra and Lewis both established new highs in scoring as well, as Lewis scored a season-high 17 on 5-of-7 shooting, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Mafra, who is averaging 13.8 points over his last six games, scored a career-high 17 points to go along with his game-high eight rebounds. Junior guard Matt Dorr also reached double-digits in points for the Toreros (7-9) after contributing 10.
The Toreros came out firing, opening up the game hitting 12 of their 16 field goals, including 8-of-10 from three-point range. With a run of 15-3 capped by a Devin Ginty three at the 8:18 mark, USD held a 32-14 lead.
The USD advantage would be stretched to as much as 19 when Patrick McCollum hit both of his free throws to set the score at 40-21 with less than three-and-a-half minutes to go in the opening period. Florida A&M, however, went on a 15-2 run in the last three minutes of the first half, cutting the margin to 42-36 entering halftime.
USD held a 52-50 advantage with 11:35 to go, but, sparked by a Mafra fade-away jumper 31 seconds later, the Toreros went on a 12-1 run to increase their lead to 62-51. Johnson hit a trey with just under eight minutes remaining to cap the runaway stretch and helping San Diego maintain solid control of the game throughout the final minutes. The Rattlers would come no closer than seven points.
Sunday's game concluded USD's non-conference for the regular season. The Toreros will open up their WCC slate on Friday at Santa Clara University in an 8:30 p.m. game.
